Improvement in lamp-burners



1. woLsTENHoLME.

Lamp Burner.

Patented Feb. 3, 1863.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.'

JAMES WOLSTENHOLME, `OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN LAM P-BURNERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,599, dated February 3, 1863.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, J AMES WoLsfrENHoLME, of the city and county of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Burners for Lamps for Consuming Goal-Oils; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings making a part ot' the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Figure lis a view of alamp with my burner attached. Fig. 2 shows a section of the burner and wick-tube on the line A B of Fig. 4. Fig. 3 shows a section on the line G D of Fig. 4. Figs. 4 and 5 show the upper and under sides otthe burner.

It is a matter of common experience that sperm-oil will emit a clear light when burned by the use of a wick confined by a surrounding tube. It is an equally notorious fact that the mineral oils will, when used with the same apparatus, burn so imperfectly that the surrounding atmosphere of the room is soon so heavily charged with smoke as to becomev intolerable. The well-understood reason for this difference is that inthe latter class of oils the lighter and more inflammable hydrocarbons-such as naph th a and benzole-are extracted in order that the oil may be suficien tly non-explosive for domestic use. To burn the heavier hydrocarbon or kerosene oil which remains, some artificial means must be resorted to in order to'supply the amount of oxygen to the vapor necessary to produce combustion, and accordingly the universal practice has been to consume all mineral oils inside of a chimney of sufficient height to furnish the amount of draft required. Since the introduction otthis class of oils as illuminating agents, manifold attempts have been made to produce a burner which would be adapted to the peculiar character of these oils and dispense with the use of a chimney. No attempt has, however, before my invention, proved successful, for the reason that in no ca'se have the conditions upon which perfect combustion can take place been complied with.

My invention consists iu a structure by which the vapor of the oil from the wick,which is permitted to How over an extent of surface sufficiently great to allow of the free commingling with it of the oxygen of the air, is maintained at the temperature necessary for complete combustion, whereof l am enabled to compensate for the absence of a powerful artificial draft. The principle which I have sought to make available is the one which is constantly exhibited in the case of a lighted candle. We there see the melted wax or tallow form a reservoir around the wick, and as the vapor becomes ignited by the ame, it forms an illuminated mass, the diameter of which is many times greater than the diameter of the wick, from the fact that each particle of vapor is free to combine with a sufficient equivalent of oxygen to produce combustion. So long as the wick is kept properly trimmed, the flame will burn brightly; but when it has been permitted to become too long the vapor at the upper end of the wick will be cooled to such an extent tha-t combustion will be impeded.

In the accompanying drawings, D D is a wick-tube, constructed as nearly air-tight as possible, and extending to a point near the bottom of the lamp. .lhis arrangement is no part of my improvement, but is of value to prevent the escape of vapor excited by the metal of the tube after it has become heated. 'Ihe upper extremity of the wick-tube is surrounded by a flange or projecting shelf, A, the upper surface of which may be either at right angles to the axis of the tube, or it may be concave. The form of the flange is not material so long as it furnishes a complete base A around the entire tube for the vapor of the oil to `ow upon. Inasmuch as the metallic base 4A for the distribution of the vapor would have its temperature so much reduced by the ascending currents of air through the shell B B, presently to be described, as to cool the Vapor upon its surface below the point necessary for free combustion, I make the upper extremity of the tube double, so that there shall be a space of confined air directly beneath the metallic base A. In the present instance I have shown a cross-section of this space, Fig. 2, in the form of an inverted wedge, of which the flange A is the base; but any arrangement of double walls which causes the wick-tube at its upper extremity, and directly beneath the flange A, to be surrounded by a space of confined air, will effect the desired result. By the use of this surrounding nonconducting jacketI am enabled to keep the flan ge A at the elevated temperature of about 6000, Without which the vapor ofthe oil could not be successfully burned unless by the aid of a chimney. The tube itself is surrounded by the conical shell B B, which is open at the bottom, and should be provided with perforated plates G H, or some equivalent means for checking the force of too sudden blasts of air. The upper part of the conical shell is contracted so as to cause the ascending current of air to be delivered in a thin sh eet about the base of the flange. A dome, I I, with an aperture for the emission of the Haine, surmounts the Whole, as shown.

By the employment of the means above described any of the common forms of' Wicks may be employed, care only being taken that the size of the ange which surrounds the Wick-tube shall be increased in proportion to the size of the Wick used, and the air-space increased so as to accommodate such change.

I do not claim as new the use of a ange, A, projecting from the Wick-tube, for the purpose of forming a base for the vapor of the oil to flow upon; but

I do claim- Surrounding the under side of such flange With a space of confined air, for the purpose of preventin g the cooling effect upon the flange of ascending,` air-currents, substantially as described.

JAMES VVOLSTENHOLME.

W tnesses:

BENJ. F. THURs'roN, J oHN D. THURsToN. 

